


Too Tired to Breathe

by methylviolet10b



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Angst, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Prompt Fic, Watson's Woes July Writing Prompts 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-07 14:19:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11625342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/methylviolet10b/pseuds/methylviolet10b
Summary: Watson knows exhaustion. This is worse. Written for JWP #26: I Really Could Use A Bit Of A Kip Right Now.





	Too Tired to Breathe

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Rather depressing. And absolutely no beta. This was written in a complete rush. You have been warned.
> 
> Author's Notes: Written for JWP #26: I Really Could Use A Bit Of A Kip Right Now. Your prompt word for today is: exhaustion.

I am a doctor. I have been a soldier. Both professions require long periods of hard work, activity, and diligence, and neither are strangers to exhaustion in all its forms. I stood watches over sickbeds on three separate continents, tending my patients when I was too tired to tell time. I laboured long hours in field hospitals and rude encampments, waging war against Death while fighting to keep fatigue from fumbling my fingers.  
  
As friend and companion to Sherlock Holmes, I experienced exhaustion in yet more forms. The long wearisome waits for a suspect; sleepless chases over cityscapes and countrysides; endless battles to keep my temper and countenance in a thousand challenging situations on short sleep and even shorter notice. I learned a new kind of fatigue, too: the demands of pen and publisher against a mind over-burdened and under-slept.   
  
I thought I knew what exhaustion was, but it is nothing to what I feel now, with Holmes gone, and my Mary soon to follow. I see Death in her drawn face and spotted handkerchiefs, hear it in her rattling coughs and laboured breathing.  She is worn to a shadow.  
  
And I am too tired to write, think, or breathe.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted July 26, 2017.


End file.
